Personal Narrative Assignment, Essay Example

When recollect the incidents greatly influenced my life, I remember the one which completely changed my perception of the reality. It was not the one that happened to me, but I was involved in this activity, watched it, and eventually it significantly contributed to my lifestyle as well.

Couple years ago I had a friend. Unfortunately, she has moved to another state and we do not see each other that often now. Christine, – let me call her that way in the present narrative, – has always been a really nice person. She has always been responsive, sincere, smart and talented; also she has always demonstrated understanding, care and support. She was different from most of her peers. She had few friends, but was never really concerned about finding new ones. Christine felt delighted communicating with people or simply staying at home all by herself. It was not because she was unsociable; it was more because she had a great family and loved to spend time with her relatives.

We were really close back then, so I used to spend a lot of time at her place, chatting with her parents, her sister, and her grandparents. I have to confess: I was extremely jealous of her having such a great family. They all were just wonderful. It is not that I do not like my family, but it is just that they were absolutely amazing. Each of them tried to be a friend and support this friendship, with the differences in age and gender completely ignored. I understood Christine perfectly well when one Saturday night she stayed with her family instead partying with us. I had always readily accepted her invitations to spent time together with her relatives for it was unbelievable experience. All of them were outstanding and easygoing. I can hardly remember them arguing among each other, for they always compromised. They were all equal in their little world of mutual trust and understanding. The idyll I observed when visiting Christine’s family served as a proof of existence of perfect families, where betrayal, unfaithfulness, and mutual condemnation were impossible.

And then one day everything changed. I remember Christine showing up with her tear-stained,  pale face. She was obviously depressed. She never invited me to stay at her place any more. I didn’t want to put additional pressure on, bugging her with questions or by being irritatingly inquiring, so I just waited till she had a need to talk to someone. During one party, late at night, after everyone went to bed, we were sitting and chatting, and she told me everything. It turned out that she had occasionally run across suspicious messages on her father’s cell phone. It seemed to her like he was texting with a woman. Christine didn’t tell her mother anything, persuading herself that she could get it all wrong. Eventually it turned out that she hadn’t.

Those messages were from the woman with whom Christine’s father had had sexual relationships for two years, up to the moment when my friend found out. It took only a week for this issue to grow into scandal. It turned out that Christine’s mother had been suspecting her husband of cheating on her. In no more than a week a perfect family turned into the one experiencing a damaging power of betrayal.

No need to say I was shocked by what I heard. I simply couldn’t imagine it was happening in the family so close to ideal. I fully realized how hard it was for Christine to cope with this issue. Even though I was not a member of this family, these events made me empathize with Christine. In fact, I was disappointed to find out that there are no perfect families. I realized that there no families without internal conflicts and arguments, it just happens that some of them know how to deal with various disagreements and overcome them. All in all, this break down in the Christine’s family relationship made overlook my own family. Thus, I realized that even though my family may not be ideal in whole, but it is important that it is best for me.

In fact, the conclusion was not the one that ideal families were a myth. I have always known about it, but simply was not brave enough to accept it.  It was more about how I treat my family as being either perfect or defective, never considering the fact that “black” and “white” are rarely matched when it is about real life. Surprisingly, the situation my friend was going through taught me a good lesson that welfare of the whole family can be achieved though the effort of its each member. Moreover, even issues connected with betrayal can be resolved in a wise and considerate way. Also I realized that love is not always about fidelity, but more about mutual understanding. Just as I was shocked when first heard about Christine’s situation, I was surprised how this family managed to overcome the conflict in the best way possible, never ceasing to be strongly connected to each other, and never refusing to put trust in each other. I amazed how people are capable of solving and coping with such complicated situation, building it all on trust, love, and mutual understanding.